As a multi-genre performer, composer, and scholar with extensive international exposure, OLGA ZAITSEVA-HERZ conveys her academic research findings through an overarching approach that blends ethnographic field recordings of folk songs with contemporary musical performances, showcasing the song archives in Ukraine and in North American diasporas on a global scale.

Originally from Dnipro, Zaitseva-Herz, defended her dissertation at the University of Alberta in 2023, where she focused on the transformations of Ukrainian singing styles in Canada. Olga initiated her professional musical journey by earning a degree in violin from a conservatory in Dnipro. This was followed by sound design studies at Kyiv Karpenko-Karyi University of Theater, Cinema and TV. Subsequently, she studied classical singing and vocal pedagogy at the Wiesbaden Music Academy/ Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.

Her compositional style aims to cross the boundaries of multiple kinds and blends classical opera singing with traditional folk techniques, jazz, and pop elements, integrates various languages and elements of different music genres, and applies diverse instruments in combination with electronic and natural soundscapes.

As the founder and composer of the ZAITSA Project that bridges traditional Ukrainian singing styles with modern compositions, she first reached a global audience when producing the first EP for the appearance at the Mela Festival associated with the 2012 London Olympic Games. Notably, her album earned a nomination and was shortlisted for the Edmonton Music Prize in 2018.

 In 2021, she wrote a music play titled “The Great Water,” based on the history of Ukrainian immigration to North America. The play incorporated folk songs of Ukrainian pioneers in Canada, sourced from the Canadian archives at Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives at the Kule Folklore Centre in Edmonton.

In 2022, she earned the highly prestigious Ottilie Roederstein Emerging Artist Award from the Hesse Ministry of Science and Art in Germany. In conjunction with this scholarship, she created an overarching performance project that incorporated multiple music genres, sound art, choreography, and visuals with poetry by Taras Shevchenko and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

As a composer, Olga believes that music is a powerful tool that can combine past with present and has the ability to impact the future at the same time.